Nearly 40 filmmakers have signed a letter urging Mubi, the arthouse distributor, streaming platform and producer, to sever its ties with Sequoia
Nearly 40 filmmakers have signed a letter urging Mubi, the arthouse distributor, streaming platform and producer, to sever its ties with Sequoia Capital, an investment firm with ties to the Israeli military, and publicly condemn Sequoia for “genocide profiteering” in lithe of the war in Gaza.
The filmmakers to sign the letter have previously worked with Mubi, and join the mounting pressure on the company to reconsider its relationship with Sequoia.
These include Finland’s Aki Kaurismäki, whose Cannes 2023 Competition title Fallen Leaves was distributed by Mubi; US filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer, whose The End was bought by Mubi for UK-Ireland, Germany and Austria; Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude, with Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World bought by Mubi for territories including North America; and US filmmaker Nina Menkes.
“Mubi’s financial growth as a company is now explicitly tied to the genocide in Gaza, which implicates all of us that work with Mubi,” stated the letter.
It continued, “Gaza is enduring mass civilian killings, including of journalists, artists, and film workers, alongside the widespread destruction of Palestinian cultural sites and heritage. We don’t believe an arthouse film platform can meaningfully support a global community of cinephiles while also partnering with a company invested in murdering Palestinian artists and filmmakers.”
Scroll down for the full letter and list of signatories
The letter, first reported by Variety, also asks Mubi to heed the call made by international industry activist organisation Film Workers for Palestine to publicly condemn Sequoia Capital for “genocide profiteering”; remove Sequoia Partner Andrew Reed from Mubi’s board of directors; and put in place an ethical policy for all future Mubi investments, and respect programming and partnerships guidelines set by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).
Sequoia Capital has connections to Israeli defence technology firm Kela. Sequoia led a $100m investment in Mubi in May this year,.
Kela was founded in July 2024 and is developing an operating system to enable militaries to integrate artificial intelligence and commercial technology.
Sequoia led Kela’s $10m seed-funding round last year, according to Sequoia’s website. Kela then secured $60m in additional funding, also backed by Sequoia, with total investment in Kela now at $100m. Sequoia also has money in Apple, Google, Stripe, Airbnb and ByteDance.
Mubi posted a statement on its Instagram page in response to the initial criticism in June, stating, “The beliefs of individual investors do not reflect the views of Mubi.”
The streamer-distributor was also forced to cancel its Mubi Fest event in Mexico following backlash with Mubi posting a statement on its Instagram citing “safety considerations”. Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts also pulled out of hosting Mubi Fest in November in the wake of the controversy around the Sequoia investment.
Mubi has declined Screen’s request to further comment at this stage.
Dear Mubi leadership,
We write as filmmakers who have a professional relationship to Mubi to express our earnest concern regarding Mubi’s decision to accept $100 million in funding from Sequoia Capital, a private equity firm that, since behind schedule 2023 has chosen to double down on investing in Israeli military technology companies with the goal of profiting from the Gazan genocide. In 2024, Sequoia heavily invested in Kela, a military tech startup founded by a former senior manager of Palantir Israel and multiple Israeli military intelligence veterans, as well as military drone manufacturer Neros, and the unmanned aerial vehicle manufacture, Mach Industries.
Mubi’s financial growth as a company is now explicitly tied to the genocide in Gaza, which implicates all of us that work with Mubi. We too believe that cinema can be powerful. And we know that we can’t always control how audiences will respond to our work, and whether or not it will move and inspire them. But we can control how our work reflects our values and commitments—ones that are wholly ignored when our work is brought into alliance with a genocide-profiteering private equity firm.
Gaza is enduring mass civilian killings, including of journalists, artists, and film workers, alongside the widespread destruction of Palestinian cultural sites and heritage. We don’t believe an arthouse film platform can meaningfully support a global community of cinephiles while also partnering with a company invested in murdering Palestinian artists and filmmakers.
We approach our work with care for the people and communities they represent, and the audiences who will watch it, because as artists we are accountable to more than the bottom line. Yet Mubi’s decision to partner with Sequoia demonstrates a total lack of accountability to the artists and communities who have helped the company flourish. We believe that it is our ethical duty to do no harm. We expect our partners, at a minimum, to refuse to be complicit in the horrific violence being waged against Palestinians.
We ask you to heed the call made by Film Workers for Palestine and take action that meaningfully responds to the artists and the audiences who are such an integral part of Mubi’s success.
Yours sincerely
- Aki Kaurismäki
- Radu Jude
- Jessica Beshir
- Joshua Oppenheimer
- Robert Greene
- Kazik Radwanski
- Carson Lund
- Michael Basta
- Nate Fisher
- Blake Williams
- Iva Radivojevic
- Nina Menkes
- Ben Rivers
- Bingham Bryant
- Kit Zauhar
- Ian Edlund
- Sarah Friedland
- Kathleen Chalfant
- Miguel Gomes
- Constance Tsang
- Truong Minh Quy
- Deragh Campbell
- Laura Huertas
- John Smith
- Andrea Luka Zimmerman
- Cherien Dabis
- Tyler Taormina
- Erik Lund
- Maureen Fazendeiro
- Levan Akin
- Courtney Stephens
- Eric Baudelaire
- Camilo Restrepo
- Teddy Williams
- Nahuel Perez Biscayart
- Jussi Vatanen
- Neo Sora
- Sofia Bohdanowicz
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